a celebration of failure. joining me from woodstock, vermont, carl cameron. why are you in woodstock. reporter: mitt romney s doing debate prep. he is doing the mock debate rehearsal process. rob portman is playing the role of barack obama and they are sparring. portman did it for mccain in 2008 and folks thought he might have gotten into mccain s head a little bit. why are they doing debate prep, when the debate is a month away? what s that all about? reporter: well, there has been a lot of questions, why so early? why now? they have a block of time, while the democrats are in charlotte. they figure this is an opportunity to get off the trail and spend real time on it. this is being run by beth myers who, is very jealous about her protection of his time. so he is sequestered away in the